Abstract 5340: GATA3-VMP1 axis induces trastuzumab resistance via promoting autophagy in HER2-positive breast cancer cells
Authors: hao-yu Lin, Yu-cui Gu, Zhen-hao Wang, Kai-yuan Huang, He-xing Sun, De Zeng, Yuan-ke Liang
Journal: Cancer Research (2022)

Abstract Trastuzumab is the most important agent for HER-2 positive breast cancer both in neoadjuvant/adjuvant and metastatic settings. However, primary or acquired resistance to trastuzumab often compromises the efficacy and impairs patients’ survival. Vacuole Membrane Protein-1(VMP1), a transmembrane protein located in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, has been reported to induce chemotherapy resistance by promoting autophagy. Our preliminary study found that the expression of GATA Binding Protein 3(GATA3) and VMP1 are positively correlated in tissue samples from HER-2 positive breast cancer patients. GATA3 and VMP1 were significantly increased in both protein and mRNA levels in trastuzumab-resistant breast cancer cell lines as compared to the sensitive counterparts. Furthermore, the expression autophagy signature protein P62 significantly decreased in trastuzumab-resistant cell lines, while the expression of autophagy activation protein ATG5 increased, indicating a close relationship between autophagy and trastuzumab resistance. In tissue samples from patients treated with neoadjuvant regiments containing trastuzumab, the expression of VMP1 significantly increased in the non-pCR (non-pathological complete response) group than the pCR group. Overexpression of VMP1 in wild-type breast cancer cells decreased their sensitivity to trastuzumab. On the contrary, when VMP1 was knocked-down in trastuzumab-resistance cells, the sensitivity of cell lines to trastuzumab was increased. Moreover, overexpressed GATA3 in wild-type HER-2 positive cell lines, the expression of VMP1 increased as well as the expression of ATG5, the signature protein of autophagy, suggesting that the transcription factor GATA3 may play a role in the transcriptional activation of VMP1. The promoter sequence was predicted, and it was found that GATA3 regulatory core sequence "TGATA" existed in front of the transcription start site from -327bp to -322bp, indicating that GATA3 may transcriptionally activate the expression of VMP1 and promote the occurrence of autophagy. TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) correlation analysis showed that, both VMP1 and GATA3 are positively correlated with classical autophagy related factors ATG2B, ATG7 and BCL1, indicating VMP1 and GATA3 may be involved in the positive regulation of autophagy in HER-2 positive breast cancer. Collectively, our results suggest that GATA3 transcriptionally activates VMP1 to promote autophagy, resulting in the induction of trastuzumab resistance in HER-2 positive breast cancer. Further mechanistic study on autophagy in contribution to trastuzumab resistance is warranted. Citation Format: hao-yu Lin, Yu-cui Gu, Zhen-hao Wang, Kai-yuan Huang, He-xing Sun, De Zeng, Yuan-ke Liang. GATA3-VMP1 axis induces trastuzumab resistance via promoting autophagy in HER2-positive breast cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 5340.